The Not-So-Veiled Partisanship of Congresswoman Blackburn

Posted by Mary Mancini on August 7, 2008 under Uncategorized |

Moments after proclaiming that fixing the energy crisis of 2008 was “not a partisan issue” on this morning’s Steve Gill Show [guest host Larry Woods], Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn forgot the definition of “non-partisan.”

“…this is what inaction is getting us, the fact that the liberal elites in DC are controlling each house of Congress and not allowing these votes to come forward. The [price] increase has taken place primarily over the last couple of years.”

Someone might want to remind partisan hack Congresswoman Blackburn that she should refrain from using clichéd partisan-slurs to describe people who disagree with her when trying to present an issue as non-partisan. Just sayin’.

Oh and she also might want to check her claim that oil and gas price increases have increased “primarily over the last couple of years” and her explanation of why (three guesses whose fault…).

It’s easy to place blame for partisan reasons and Blackburn sure is good at it. But for the intellectually honesty of it all, let’s list some other reasons why we might be experiencing record high gas prices: increased consumption, production disruptions, turmoil in the middle east, the destabilization of Iraq, corporate greed, Iranian and U.S. saber-rattling, and whatever back-room shenanigans that go on between the Bushies and the Saudis (to name just a few). To lay blame at the feet of one of America’s political party for the global problem? Ridiculous. To lay blame at the feet of the leader of the free world’s administration whose policies encouraged global turmoil? Sounds about right.

And speaking of honesty, she and her friends standing in the dark in the House chamber might want to stop claiming that off-shore drilling will give us immediate relief from high gas prices. ‘Cause it won’t. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) - that’s the United States Energy Information Administration - “access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017.”

Not sure about the good Congresswoman, but I don’t think the rest of us can wait until 2030.

Listen to Blackburn and Woods on Gill

UPDATE: NY Times’ favorite economist, Paul Krugman (aka FOL* Dr. Beardy), weighs in this morning on a party who believes that “that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise.” Paging, Congressman Blackburn.

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.

What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.

Oy.

*Friend of Liberadio(!)

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